Offshore Oil & Ocean Engineering

Industry Could Create 190K Jobs By 2013, Says NOIA, API Study
The Gulf of Mexico offshore oil and gas industry supported more than 240,000 jobs across the country while contributing more than $26 billion to the nation's gross domestic product in 2010, according to a study released in July by the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) and the American Petroleum Institute (API).

The study, conducted by Quest Offshore Inc. (Sugar Land, Texas), found offshore industry-related jobs are down from 2008, due in part to the poor economy, the deepwater moratorium and the continuing slow pace of new drilling permits in the gulf. More than 60,000 jobs have been lost in the Gulf Coast states alone since 2008, according to the study.

There is potential for good news. The study projects that if exploration and development are permitted to return to historic levels and backlogged projects are processed, the gulf offshore industry could help create an additional 190,000 jobs by 2013 for a total of more than 400,000 industry-supported jobs across the United States. The gulf offshore industry could also contribute nearly $45 billion to the nation's gross domestic product by 2013.

"The bad news is that the current pace of permit reviews and approvals will just not get us there," said Randall Luthi, president of NOIA.

The study also found that the vast majority of industry-related spending, more than 95 percent, stays in the United States, which NOIA said would create more jobs and more economic growth at home.

"American energy, the American economy and American jobs—this new study clearly shows that the offshore oil and gas industry is an essential part of creating and sustaining all three," Luthi said. "And that's just the beginning. The gulf could do even more to fuel America and America's economic recovery, if allowed."

ROMAR Sells 50th Packer Management System
ROMAR International (Aberdeenshire, Scotland) recently sold its 50th packer management system (PMS) to Transocean Ltd. (Geneva, Switzerland), the company announced in June. The sale represents revenue in excess of £2 million in the two years since ROMAR introduced the PMS to market.

ROMAR said the company designed and built the PMS in response to a specific gap in the mobile rig market for an early-warning mud spill preventer system. It has been further developed into an automated diagnostic and intervention unit that provides an early warning to rig staff of a potential mud spillage into the environment. The system also captures a full data history.

Initial interest within the mobile rig industry started in the U.K. Continental Shelf North Sea with Transocean installing PMS units on their entire North Sea rig fleet.

"We continue to see a high demand for the system," said George Yule, ROMAR executive chairman, "particularly on the back of recent high profile spillage incidents in other areas as many companies review their spill prevention systems."

Kongsberg Releases Multiphase Flow Assurance Simulator
Kongsberg Oil and Gas Technologies (Sandvika, Norway) announced in June the commercial release of the first phase of LedaFlow, a multiphase flow assurance simulator.

Utilizing improved measurement technology, large-scale experimental data have been implemented with new field measurements to improve the basis on which LedaFlow's multiphase models are developed, Kongsberg said. LedaFlow increases the resolution of modeling, solving mass, energy and moment conservation for each of the three common fluid phases, which Kongsberg said provides a step change in understanding and improving accuracy in critical transient events.

The LedaFlow Suite is available as a point model plug-in for third-party software, as an engineer tool and as an integrated plug-in to Kongsberg's K-Spice dynamic process simulator. When integrated, Kongsberg said LedaFlow and K-Spice will provide highly accurate data in real time for production management, in addition to a mode for production planning.
For more information, visit www.kongsberg.com.

OGP Geomatics Committee Launches, Updates Guidelines
The Geomatics Committee of the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (OGP) launched and updated a number of its publications and models in June.

New drilling hazard site survey guidelines resulted from an extensive review and update of previously published work by the U.K. Offshore Operators Association. The guidelines describe oil field practices for conducting geophysical and hydrographic site surveys of proposed offshore drilling locations. The document also covers the use of exploration 3D seismic data to enhance or to replace acquisition of a site survey.

The committee's seabed survey data model is an industry standard for how seabed survey data can be delivered to and then managed by oil and gas companies. The aim of the model is to facilitate a streamlined workflow for managing seabed survey data for oil and gas companies, to provide a consistent data model to enable simpler integration of seabed survey data, to enable the simpler exchange of seabed survey data with joint venture partners and to provide an industry data model that survey contractors can use for providing seabed survey deliverables.

The committee said its guidelines for GNSS positioning are an extensive review and update of previously published work by the U.K. Offshore Operators Association, reflecting the pervasive nature of the technology and the fact that GNSS is no longer specifically for the offshore industry. Though written for the oil and gas industry, the committee said it could also be applicable to similar operations in renewable energy, telecommunications and engineering projects both offshore and onshore. These guidelines were co-produced by OGP and the International Association of Marine Contractors.
For more information, visit www.epsg.org.

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